“Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness” - July 19, 2015

Luke 18:1-8

            About a month ago, George died.  George was 94, but when I first met him he was only 73.  Even so, it fascinates me that he shared a certain story with many people about something that had happened to him when he was about seven years old.  That was how old he was when his parents died.  His aunt and uncle had a few children of their own and couldn’t afford to take him and his sister in, so George found himself with the choice of living either at Girard College in Philadelphia or at the Milton Hershey School in Hershey.  If he went to Hershey, he would have to get up early every morning, put on a pair of overalls, and help with the farm chores before class.  If he went to Girard, he would roll out of bed, put on a white shirt and tie, and head to breakfast.  He chose Hershey, because he didn’t want to wear a tie every day.  During his first week there – and here’s what he wanted people to know – someone in his house took some candy that wasn’t theirs and, being the new kid, the house mother assumed that it had to have been him.  She confronted him, and he told her it must have been someone else, and she punished him both for taking the candy and for failing to own up to it.  More than six decades later, he was still stinging from the false accusation.  If I think about someone who hungered and thirsted after righteousness, I begin there.

            That experience created in him a strong sense of fairness and built on an already-strong sense of right and wrong.  He had no problem speaking his mind, which can be good or bad.  I was pastor to a two-point circuit, where the two churches had voted to merge, and George was president of the trustees at the church whose building was going to be changed from a worship center to an outreach site.  The Sunday after that decision was made, I went outside and there on the sidewalk was a woman whose name was on the church rolls, but we saw her maybe once a year.  Maybe.  She was talking to George and sniffling, “How could you do this?  This place has always been my church!”  George looked her straight in the eye and said, “If it’s that important to you, how come we   never see you here?”  He wasn’t being mean.  He was being honest. 

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness have that characteristic.  They look beyond the immediate situation and ask about the underlying causes.  Why is church attendance lower?  It’s because people aren’t getting themselves to church.  Why is there crime?  Sometimes it’s because people get pushed to the edge and they get desperate.  Sometimes it’s because they are selfish and greedy and heartless.  How do you know the difference?

Ahhh… there’s a catch there.  None of us can be totally sure about what’s going on inside someone else, and if we are not careful we can make the mistake that hurt him so deeply and wrongly accuse someone.  Furthermore, sometimes it’s not just the people who are unjust.  Sometimes the whole system we live with is set up in an unfair way, and what do you do then?

Do you work the system?  George was an insurance agent before he retired, so I’ll use an insurance example.  Mind you, this has nothing to do with him.  There are times when someone who is in the hospital might benefit from staying one or two days longer, but their insurance is running out for that particular admission.  It is not unheard of for a patient to be discharged, and later that day to have to be readmitted, which is a new event, and although they have to face a second set of copays, they would be covered for this new stay.  So back they go to the floor they had just left.  It’s a silly game, and questionable on many levels, but it is known to happen.

The search for righteousness, on the personal and on the social level, is messy.  Listen to the parable that Jesus told about a woman who wanted justice, a judge who wasn’t really interested in providing it, and the contrast to how God sees things.

“He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’” [Luke 18:2-8]

I hear in that both the promise that there will come a time when, in the words of the prophet Amos [5:4] justice will

“roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”

and an important warning to us not to assume that we are always the ones on the side of righteousness, not to judge too quickly or to omit mercy from the picture. It may be no mistake that right after Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” he went on to “Blessed are the merciful.”  Without that, righteousness becomes self-righteousness, which is poisonous to the human soul.  Billy Joel described what that is like.

“There’s a place in the world for the angry young man

with his working class ties and his radical plans.

He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl,

he’s always at home with his back to the wall.

He’s proud of the scars from the battles he’s lost.

He struggles and bleeds as he hangs on his cross,

and he’ll go to his grave as an angry old man.”

We all, I hope, long for justice and righteousness.  No one ever did so more than Jesus, and he went to the cross for it.  But he went to the cross.  He is the Savior, and he will bring it about – be sure of that.

            Our place is to hear his question, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” and to answer, to the best of our ability, “Yes, Lord.  Look over here.”  We are always walking that line between doing right and the awareness that we do wrong.  Luther said that to be a Christian is to be at the same time righteous and a sinner.[1]  That means that we will always be on the road toward perfection, but that the blessing is not only for those who have arrived but also for those who know that one day God himself will put things to rights.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” [Matthew 5:6]

And whoever took that candy, I am sure that he and George and Jesus have finally talked it over, along with the house mother, and sorted it all out.

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[1] Writing in Latin, Luther used the term simul justus et peccator.  

"Blessed Are the Meek" - July 12, 2015

Genesis 18:20-33 (Matthew 5:5)

            “The meek shall inherit the earth.”  Jesus didn’t come up with that on his own.  It is a loose quotation from Psalm 37:8-9.

“Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath.

            Do not fret – it leads only to evil.

For the wicked shall be cut off,

            but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”

That throws light on what is meant by “meek”, which often is taken to be the same as “weak”.  “Meek” and “weak” are two different things.  To be meek is to be among “those who wait for the Lord.”   Meekness is not timidity.  Meekness is knowing your place with respect to the Lord.  A great example of real meekness, instead of the kind of fearful backwardness that passes for meekness, comes from the story of Abraham’s negotiation with God on behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. 

The lead-in is that Abraham had had a visit from three mysterious travelers who revealed to him and Sarah that, despite their advanced age, they were about to become parents, and not by adoption.  As they were leaving, they casually dropped the information that they were on their way to oversee the destruction of the cities because of the way that they (unlike Abraham) treated strangers and the vulnerable.  Abraham’s nephew Lot was living there with his wife and daughters, so Abraham immediately went into rescue mode.  He would persuade God himself to relent.  Only listen to how meekly he goes about it:

“So the men turned from there, and went towards Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham came near and said, ‘Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’ And the Lord said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.’ Abraham answered, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.’ Again he spoke to him, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.’ He answered, ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there.’ He said, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.’ Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’ And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.”  [Genesis 18:20-33]

It was respectful, kind, and persuasive.  In the end, it didn’t work out but it wasn’t Abraham’s fault and the travelers ended up rescuing Abraham’s family anyway, out of all the population.

            That is closer to what the Bible thinks of as “meek” than the way we usually use the term.  Again, in the Bible, meekness has to do with our relationship to God.  If we are respectful and humble before God, that is meekness.  At times that makes us easygoing with people, but at times it may also mean that we draw the line, because we cannot always please both and, in that case, it’s always both right and advisable to choose God.  That should be obvious, but it isn’t always so easy in the moment.  As one commentator puts it:

“Understood biblically, meekness is making choices and exercising power with a divine rather than a social reference point.  Meekness has nothing to do with blind obedience to the rulers in whatever country we happen to live in or to bosses in our work place or compliance with that still more powerful force, our peer group.  Meek Christians do not allow themselves to be dragged along by the tides of political power or to be led by the smell of money.  Such rudderless persons have cut themselves off from their own conscience, God’s voice in their heart, and thrown away their God-given freedom.  Meekness is an attribute of following Christ, whatever the risks.”[1]

So you end up, over the years, with Christians who have been some of the most peaceful, kindly people, just saying, “No,” and getting into trouble for it.  Yet out of that, great good has come for many, and the ability to lead peaceful, quiet lives – to inherit the earth.

            William Penn went on trial in 1670 for street preaching.[2]  Yes, the Quakers started out as street preachers of the sort you see occasionally outside train stations and at bus stops.  King Charles was trying to suppress dissent after the English Civil War had finally settled down, to prevent further trouble based on religious disagreement.  So he had folks like the Quakers rounded up.  At his trial, Penn demanded to know the specific law under which he was being charged and when the judge couldn’t point to anything apart from a broad reference to disturbing the peace, Penn asked to be released.  The judge refused, and the trial went on.  The jury came back, saying that they couldn’t convict a man simply for speaking on a street corner.  The judge ordered the jury to reconsider (meaning to come back with a guilty verdict), and sent them away.  They came back again, saying they couldn’t convict.  The judge then had them locked up while they reconsidered.  In prison, they became even more stubborn.  Then he denied them food or water but they still would not change their verdict.  Finally, the judge disbanded the jury but kept them in prison until each juror paid a fine.  Meanwhile, he had Penn and one other man sent to prison for not removing their hats in court, which was the best he could come up with. 

Did the meek get anything out of that?  Consider this: William Penn did not do anything but ask for his rights.  That was not out of line.  The jury did not do anything but consider the facts of the case and act as responsible jurors, respecting the law more than the judge did.  Penn was meek and they were meek, with respect to their Christian conscience.  As a result of that one trial, juries in English-speaking nations became independent of the will of judges, and because Penn saw what could go wrong and wanted to put it right, we live in a Commonwealth whose foundational laws allowed for people to follow their consciences in religion and in civic life.  That’s why, not only here, but on a national level, Quakers and Mennonites and Brethren and others are exempt from military service.  That’s why United Methodists in Utah are not forced to support the Mormon Temple, and why Jehovah’s Witnesses do not have to say the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

There are times and places it isn’t always easy to express that loyalty, but the meek find ways.  When I was in college, a friend of mine inherited his grandfather’s record collection and started listening to every record, one by one.  Eventually, he came to a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that had been made in Berlin in 1942.  The conductor was Wilhelm Furtwangler, who was no friend of the Nazis, but remained at his post throughout their rule.  “You have to hear this,” my friend told me, and he put the needle down at the beginning of the “Ode to Joy”.  It was the oddest, yet maybe the best, rendition of it I have ever heard.  It messed with Beethoven’s timing.  There was no way that anyone in the hall didn’t know how it was written, or what Furtwangler was doing, because there was a point where he repeated a line that isn’t repeated in the score and then held the last word, and held it and held it and held it, then a long rest afterward.  “Every cherub stands before God,” they sang, “before God!  Before God!  Before God!”[3]

There, at the heart of an empire that was seeking to set one people above all others and the control of one man over all that people, where that one man had been trying to replace God’s name with his own wherever he could, the court musician, as it were, led the imperial singers in these words:

“Joy, Daughter from Elysium,

Your magic brings together

What custom has sternly divided.

All men shall become brothers,

Wherever your gentle wings hover.

Be embraced, you millions!

This kiss is for the whole world!

Brothers, above the canopy of stars

Must dwell a loving father.

Be embraced, you millions!

This kiss is for the whole world!

Joy, beautiful spark of the Divinity!

Daughter from Elysium!

Joy, beautiful spark of the Divinity!

Spark of the Divinity!”[4]

In May of 1945, Furtwangler was relieved of his duties when the Allies entered Berlin, but seven years later his name had been cleared, and he spent the last two years of his life back at the podium where he felt most at home.

            “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

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[1] Jim Forest, “Blessed Are the Meek” in The Ladder of the Beatitudes (Orbis Books: Maryknoll, NY, 1999), 49-50.

[2] See Paul Mark Sandler, “The Trial of William Penn” in The Daily Record, February 2, 2007.  http://www.shapirosher.com/pages/news/135/the-trial-of-william-penn

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHlPC3CAZ20  -- Listen especially at the 58:00 point.

[4] Translator unspecified; translation found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_%28Beethoven%29 .

"Blessed Are Those Who Mourn" - July 5, 2015

Jeremiah 31:15-17

            It feels kind of odd to be preaching about how those who mourn are blessed on a holiday weekend.  The sound of fireworks and Sousa marches are still in our ears, and people’s minds are on potato salad and burgers.  Wave the flag and blow the fire sirens!  That’s what this weekend is about.  Yet the history of any nation, ours included, has a lot of grief attached to it.  Run down the road to Valley Forge.  For us it is a familiar place for a long walk or a picnic, to listen to the bells from the carillon, or just a shortcut from Paoli.  The reason there’s a National Park there, of course, is that Washington’s troops froze and starved there while the British were secure and comfortable downriver in Philadelphia.

           Not every nation has known the healing or has been able to put ancient hurts behind them.  The Serbians and the Croatians are not likely to trust each other very soon and the Macedonians and Albanians are going to keep an eye on both.  Can you blame them?  On the other hand, what happens if you don’t at least begin to seek healing?

           In some cases, the grief is kept alive by ritual observance.  When some of my friends who are Jewish were setting the date for their wedding, they had to rule out the day they really wanted because it turned out to be, in the Jewish calendar, the ninth day of the month of Av.  That is an annual observance of national calamity, like Pearl Harbor Day and 9/11 rolled together, when they are supposed to fast and mourn the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.  That was, certainly, a terrible day.  It was what Jeremiah spoke of when he said,

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
   lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
   she refuses to be comforted for her children,
   because they are no more.” [Jeremiah 31:15]

            Time passes, though, and life moves on.  We are not fighting the Revolution anymore, and people even get all excited when a new prince or princess is born in London.  Pain and loss and grief, on the national scale as well as on a personal level, can become something else.  It may not go away, but it can be changed. 

           It isn’t just time, though, that makes the difference.  People have to own up to the grief that they experience and not to hide from it.  Ann LaMott has written:

“…the lifelong fear of grief keeps us in a barren, isolated place and that only grieving can heal grief; the passage of time will lessen the acuteness, but time alone, without the direct experience of grief, will not heal it. …I’m pretty sure that only by experiencing the ocean of sadness in a naked and immediate way do we come to be healed – which is to say, we come to experience life with a real sense of presence and spaciousness and peace.”[1]

In other words (in Jesus’ words):

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

            Grief can sneak up on you, but so can God’s grace.  You’re in a friend’s kitchen talking, and she knocks a mug off the counter onto the floor, where it smashes into forty-seven pieces.  She breaks into tears, and you want to say, “That’s okay, everybody gets clumsy sometimes,” but it’s a good thing you don’t, because before the words are out of your mouth she’s telling you that the mug was her father’s and he died last year and it’s like one more piece of him is gone, and one more piece of life that will never come back.  Suddenly you are looking into a far deeper depth than a cup of tea.  You get a glimpse of another person’s heart and soul.  So you comfort your friend the best that you can, and listen and maybe there’s a tear or two, and if things are right, then by the time you leave you are closer to one another and the revelation of loss has led to a deeper friendship.  As Joni Mitchell sang, “Something’s lost but something’s gained in living every day.”[2]

            The past few weeks have highlighted some of the dark side and some of the pain of our own national life.  We have been reminded how much of this country was built up by slave labor in a land that was settled by displacing the people who were here first.  The early history includes epidemics of smallpox and yellow fever and the later history includes people coming from Europe to work in dismal conditions in the mines and factories, and it never has been easy for the farmers who grow those amber waves of grain.  All the reminders of that stuff have been piling on for months, and if you haven’t felt the weight of it, maybe you just haven’t been paying attention.

            I am convinced, though, that the mourning does not come without a blessing, some kind of comfort.  Honestly, I’m not entirely sure yet what that will be.  Nevertheless, I will express a hope and a speculation about what God may have in mind.  It’s something that I believe God has in mind not just for this nation, but for every nation.  It includes comfort not just for one person who mourns, but for all who carry grief in their hearts.  I think it’s the discovery that we have within us all, by God’s grace alone and not by our own nature, the ability to ask for and to offer forgiveness and to demonstrate the kind of caring that sees each human being for who they are, one who carries the image of God, and who is therefore worthy of dignity.  I think that we have finally started to do what Abraham Lincoln put before the Union only about a month before his death.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”[3]

           It is, after all, “a patriot’s dream that sees, beyond the years, our alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears”.  It is a patriot’s dream that God will look not only upon our nation but upon our world and “mend her every flaw, confirm her soul in self-control, her liberty in law”.  Blessed are those who mourn, for in that day they will be comforted.

            So,

“Keep your voice from weeping,
   and your eyes from tears;
for there is a reward for your work,

says the Lord:
   they shall come back from the land of the enemy; 
there is hope for your future,

says the Lord.” [Jeremiah 31:16-17]

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[1] Anne LaMott, “Ladders” in Small Victories (New York: Riverhead Books, 2014), 29-30.

[2] from “Both Sides Now”

[3] Abraham Lincoln, “Second Inaugural Address” http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html

"Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit" - June 28, 2015

Luke 18:9-14

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” [Matthew 5:4]

            I know that it is corny and mushy and melodramatic beyond excuse, but when I think of the poor in spirit, I think of a song from Mary Poppins that I have a hard time listening to Julie Andrews sing without getting all choked up.

“Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul's
The little old bird woman comes.
In her own special way to the people she calls,
‘Come, buy my bags full of crumbs;
Come feed the little birds,
Show them you care,
And you'll be glad if you do.
The young ones are hungry,
The nests are so bare.
All it takes is tuppence from you.
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag!
Feed the birds,’ that's what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the skies.

All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares.
Although you can't see it, 
You know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares.

Though her words are simple and few,
Listen, listen, she's calling to you:
‘Feed the birds, tuppence a bag!
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag!’"[1]        

I have this image burned into my memory from childhood of the little old bird woman sitting there on the steps, perched on the edge of poverty and hunger herself, with only the company of the pigeons and sparrows, although they, at least, flock around her and bring a smile to her face.  When I was in London as an adult and visited St. Paul’s, which is a gargantuan pile of stone, I saw how a figure like that would be even more forlorn against a towering backdrop and lost.

            That, to me, is what it is to be poor in spirit.  It is to be overwhelmed, lost, overlookable.

            Poverty is a big part of that.  The form of the Beatitudes recorded by Luke doesn’t say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”  It says, “Blessed are you poor.”  It goes together, though, doesn’t it?  You don’t have to be poor to be on the underside of things, but being poor will get you there pretty quickly.  A few years back a woman named Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a book that is a classic, or will be someday.  Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America tells how she, a middle-class writer with a long list of educational accomplishments, went to work as a waitress and as the employee of a cleaning service, and what she learned about the dark side of our economic system.  She learned what it does to people, body and soul.  She wrote:

“To draw for a moment from an entirely different corner of my life, that part of me still attached to the biological sciences, there is ample evidence that animals — rats and monkeys, for example — that are forced into a subordinate status within their social systems adapt their brain chemistry accordingly, becoming 'depressed' in humanlike ways. Their behavior is anxious and withdrawn; the level of serotonin (the neurotransmitter boosted by some antidepressants) declines in their brains. And — what is especially relevant here — they avoid fighting even in self-defense ... My guess is that the indignities imposed on so many low-wage workers — the drug tests, the constant surveillance, being 'reamed out' by managers — are part of what keeps wages low. If you're made to feel unworthy enough, you may come to think that what you're paid is what you are actually worth.”[2]

Extrapolating from that, she notes that a CEO who makes, say, two hundred times what the company’s average worker earns may come to think that he is worth two hundred times what they are.  It has a corrosive effect on everybody.

            Of course, someone who becomes aware of their part in that may themselves be overcome by the enormity of it all.  In Jesus’ day, it was the tax collectors who profited from the Roman occupation of Judaea.  The Romans despised them for being disloyal to their own people, but they were glad to use them.  The Jews despised them for the extortion that they committed, as well as for the fact that the money they collected went to sustaining the Roman army that carried out the orders of wonderful people like Pontius Pilate and burned the occasional village or crucified criminals and left them to die along the roads outside Jerusalem.  Imagine that you were such a person.  What would involvement in that kind of life do to your soul?

            If I were to compare it to someone in today’s setting, I might ask what happens inside a drug dealer or someone who traffics in human lives or somebody who makes a living defrauding the elderly or harming children.  To do that, someone would have to block off or (worse) kill off a part of their conscience, and become indifferent to human pain.  Then, if they came to themselves and that part of them came back to life, imagine what torment would be there.

            Jesus told a story.  He said,

“‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’”  [Luke 18:9-14]

Imagine!  It was the one who had to struggle with what he had done, who recognized that he had to speak to God, but couldn’t really even bring himself to do that the normal way, who would find that God had heard him.

            However they have reached that point, whether by other people’s action or by their own, God makes the poor in spirit part of his own kingdom.  It is as if he reaches down and scoops them up the way a parent scoops up a child who is so weary and so tired that all she can do is sit down and cry, and holds them the way a parent will, until the child knows that, no matter what the problem may be, when she is held against her Father’s shoulder she can sob all she wants until, with certainty, the sense of being safe and secure returns, and she can rest.  Then, after a while, she will open her eyes again and all will be right.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” [Matthew 5:4]

            I’ll give Billy Graham the last word on this today.  Thinking about this verse, he wrote,

“…We must be humble in our spirits. If you put the word ‘humble’ in place of the word ‘poor,’ you will understand what He meant.

In other words, when we come to God, we must realize our own sin and our spiritual emptiness and poverty. We must not be self-satisfied or proud in our hearts, thinking we don’t really need God. If we are, God cannot bless us. The Bible says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Pride can take all kinds of forms, but the worst is spiritual pride. Often the richer we are in things, the poorer we are in our hearts. Have you faced your own need of Christ? Do you realize that you are a sinner and need God’s forgiveness? Don’t let pride or anything else get in the way, but turn to Christ in humility and faith—and He will bless you and save you.”[3]

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[1] Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman, “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins (Disney, 1964).

[2] cited at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1257.Barbara_Ehrenreich

[3] http://billygraham.org/answer/what-does-it-mean-to-be-poor-in-spirit-as-jesus-said-we-ought-to-be/

"Blessed" - June 21, 2015

Matthew 5:1-12

            Toward the start of Fiddler on the Roof, there’s a scene where the main character, Tevye the Milkman, is gathered around the table with his wife and daughters as the Sabbath begins.  His wife lights the candles for the meal, signaling the Sabbath’s start, and the first thing that Tevye does is pray for his children.  The scene is a reflection of what goes on in many Orthodox Jewish households on Friday evening, when fathers will traditionally lay a hand on the head of each child, one by one, and along with specific prayers for a son or daughter, will offer a blessing that is familiar to us as well:

“The Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.  The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

[Numbers 6:24-27]

            Today is Fathers’ Day, and it’s also the Sunday that I’m starting a sermon series on the Beatitudes: a collection of Jesus’ sayings that appears at the start of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and again in a slightly different form in Luke.  We read them as our call to worship, and will do so all summer long as we look at them one by one, taking them as if they were spoken by God the Father to a whole line of children approaching him, as he looks at each and sees both their need and the good in them and says,

“Blessed are the poor in spirit…

Blessed are those who mourn…

Blessed are the meek…

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…

Blessed are the merciful…

Blessed are the pure in heart…

Blessed are the peacemakers…

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake…”

And with each child, a special word of blessing that applies to each one is laid on the child’s head.  For today, though, let’s just consider the first word that starts each saying: “Blessed”.

           

            It’s a tricky word, “blessed”.  There are a lot of good things in life which are certainly blessings.  Good health, a decent job, friends, a loving family, to be alive in a time and place of peace and freedom, a good education, even good weather – all of these can be understood as blessings.  And certainly the letter of James reminds us,

“Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” [James 1:17]

The mistake is to think that having these things is the same as being blessed, or to assume that if you don’t have them that you are not blessed.  That Joel Osteen lives in a house worth $10.5 million does not necessarily mean that God had singled him out to be unusually blessed.  It might, in fact, point out something he lacks – something other than cash. 

           When you’re a day late and a dollar short, though, it might be hard to see things that way.  Jesus’ announcement, “Blessed are those who…” is therefore all the more important to hold onto.  I’m sure you’ve seen that bumper sticker that says, “Too Blessed to be Stressed” – but the Beatitudes single out people who are stressed already.  Run through the list:

• the poor in spirit – How did they get that way?  What have they been through or what are they going through that is robbing them of their confidence or their sense of worth?
• those who mourn – that’s pretty self-explanatory.
• the meek – What is it like to be at the end of the line all the time?  What does it do to someone to be afraid to speak up for herself or himself?
• those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – How often have you seen the frustration that comes to someone who just wants the world to be a fair and decent place? 

The passage continues on like that.  Jesus’ words are targeted, not for those who are too blessed to be stressed, but for those who are too stressed to recognize the blessing.

           The blessing may be in the form of a promise.  It might simply be that there will be an end to the trouble.  (Those who mourn will be comforted.  Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.)  It might be a promise that something incredible will be done for them.  (The meek will inherit the earth.  The pure in heart will see God.)  Those are wonderful promises, and the source of great encouragement and hope.

           Sometimes the blessing involves an affirmation at the deepest level of who you are as a person.  Peacemakers, you are children of God.  You who are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, yours is the kingdom of heaven; not “will be”, but “is”.  It’s already yours.  Which again gets back to the notion of blessing as something that we know here and now.  Yes, we may be blessed later in some particular way, but we are blessed right in this moment.  “Blessed are…” said Jesus.

           Elizabeth Shively, who teaches New Testament Studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, describes this aspect of the blessing that Jesus’ holds out this way:

“Jesus calls us to join a radical kingdom. He gives us a radical vision to match, that the kingdom of heaven infiltrates our present. We can continue fishing for people, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom at great cost to ourselves, fighting oppressive powers in Jesus' name. We can suffer for the sake of Jesus and the gospel, with the assurance that God has the last word. When we see people receiving the word of God, and finding healing and freedom in Jesus' name we can announce, ‘the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.’"[1]

The blessing is not earned somehow, but is discovered in the course of faithful discipleship.  It is revealed when, as God lays a fatherly hand on his daughters and sons, the love comes through, with or without words, and whether we are laughing or crying, being childlike or childish, that touch itself conveys to us who and what we really are so that, as Paul says,

“When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”  [Romans 8:15-17]

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[1] Elizabeth Shively, “Commentary on Matthew 5:1-12”, January 30, 2011. https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=863

"There Is a New Creation" - June 14, 2015

II Corinthians 5:16-21

           I recently filled out one of those surveys that McDonald’s does: the kind where you follow a link, answer a dozen questions, and get a verification code for a buy one/get one egg mcmuffin.  Normally, I admit, if I do one of those, I tend to skip the essay questions.  I don’t know why, but this one time, when I told them that I was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with my dining experience, and they asked me why, I stopped to think about it.  This is what I told Mr. McDonald, or Mayor McCheese, or whoever reads them.  “I was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, because I don’t really expect much when I go to McDonald’s.  I want something quick and cheap, and that’s really about all that you are set up for – which is fine with me.”

I felt badly about that afterward, not because I didn’t mean it but because I did.  Not every meal has to be a candidate for a magazine review.  Not every restaurant has to get a “Best of …” award.  However, I am beginning to think there may be something wrong with just writing off any part of life whatsoever.  If I look at it in a certain way, I can see my attitude bordering on the kind of bleak outlook that the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes displays.  There the low expectations show up in poetic form and we read:

“Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
   vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 
What do people gain from all the toil
   at which they toil under the sun? 
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
   but the earth remains forever. 
The sun rises and the sun goes down,
   and hurries to the place where it rises. 
The wind blows to the south,
   and goes round to the north;
round and round goes the wind,
   and on its circuits the wind returns. 
All streams run to the sea,
   but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
   there they continue to flow. 
All things are wearisome;
   more than one can express;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
   or the ear filled with hearing. 
What has been is what will be,
   and what has been done is what will be done;
   there is nothing new under the sun.”  [Ecclesiastes 1:2-9]

In my own defense, there is a certain kind of comfort in that, and even a kind of wisdom.  I mean, what’s the point in getting all upset over things when they just are what they are?  People are people, and they’re going to do human things.  We are all going to make mistakes and fail to learn from them.  We’re all going to disappoint one another sometime.  Get over it, already. 

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

[Romans 3:23]

The Bible says so.

            Then, too, that may be a stimulus to being more understanding and compassionate toward others.  Jesus asked,

“Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye?” [Luke 6:41]

If you know that you yourself are prone to weakness, maybe you will be more forgiving of others’ weaknesses.  Think of the whole Josh Duggar situation.  Without dwelling on details, one of the big problems there is not just that he did things which should never have been done, and not just that it was handled so poorly by his parents and by the church and by the police.  What puts the final nail into it is that the people who allowed misconduct to go uncorrected and the victims to go without proper help then proceeded to set themselves up as examples of the Christian family.

            Ah, who but Jesus is perfect?  No one.

            And yet… Did you hear me justifying the whole “it-is-what-it-is” attitude by saying it may somehow open the door to making people better?  Maybe there is more to it all, and no matter how blasé we are, or think we are, there is still the lingering suspicion that if we are made in the image of God, that we should be able to expect more from ourselves, and maybe even of other people. 

Jesus showed us what human life can really and truly be like.  He was understanding of our weakness, but he also looked for and brought out the best in those who met him with trust.  Someone like Zacchaeus, a tax collector who probably had committed his share of extortion along the way, found himself promising,

“Look, half my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything I will pay back four times as much.” [Luke 19:8]

Time and time again, people have heard Jesus’ voice, not condemning them for their shortcomings, but encouraging them to do better, and to become the people they were meant to be from the beginning.  It’s one of the consequences of meeting Jesus heart-to-heart, that a person is changed, and their outlook on the world and on their place in it can no longer be, “So what?” or “Here we go again.”

            In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul put it this way:

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  [II Corinthians 5:16-21]

That is a big challenge, but guess what?  With Jesus’ help, you’re up to it.